Comments

5

@3: Morales isn't running for Council again until her term ends, in 2023. Only the two at-large seats are on the ballot this year.

As for Harrell, if he couldn't beat Morales by more than he did when he was a supposedly popular incumbent defending his seat, I don't know how much stomach he has for campaigning now. I'd expect him to run an advertising/mailing-heavy campaign, and I'd expect Gonzalez to mop the floor with him on the ground.

6

@6 I think he runs the Biden campaign playbook. Lay low in the primary and let the progressives introduce crazier and crazier ideas to further appeal to the activists and then when it's all said and done in the general go with the "I'm not a great leader but I'm not that level of crazy" and win. Gonzales will have to defend the council actions / lack of action the last 2 years and it's not going to be easy. Moderates/Biz types won't vote for her and the activists will be upset when it turns out the council will come no where near to defunding the police 50%.

7

@6: I'm sure that's your wet dream, but that isn't how campaigns are won or lost in this city anymore.

8

@7 you're correct in that view as regards a districted council position, but for an at large position, like mayor, @6's stated scenario is closer to the mark.

9

@6 see Durkan, Jenny for reference.

11

@10: Gonzalez scored a coup convincing Oliver to run for city council? That's a pretty bizarre take, as Gonzalez endorsed her aide, Brianna Thomas, as soon as Thomas announced for that seat.

12

This is the first time in a very long time we have a candidate who is actually qualified to be mayor. But now we have two! Fuck yes, finally. I'm tired of these losers who know nothing about how the city is run trying to figure it out as they go along. The last city council member to become mayor was Norm Rice, and he was a damn good mayor. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for, but I don't think we can go too far wrong if it is Harrell versus Gonzalez.

15

I expect The Stranger, which always supports the most radical and insane candidate in every race, to go all-out trying to smear Harrell. In that respect, I was a little disappointed in this article. Yes, you give a laundry list of every single controversial statement he's ever made. But you also gave details of his biography that are favorable to him. Amateur hour at The Stranger? You'll have to try harder than that to convince your readers that Bruce Harrell is an anime supervillain.

16

I especially enjoy The Stranger still beating the drum against Ed Murray, and anyone who failed to join The Stranger's witch hunt against him:

"Harrell did not direct the council to investigate Murray."

There was little indication Seattle's citizens actually cared about the accusations against Murray, and what could the Council have done? The felons who accused Murray showed no interest in making their claims in any place which had penalties for brazenly lying, and none of them resided in Seattle, so the Council's subpoena power would have had no effect. With no witnesses and no evidence, the Council could have considered the following:

-- Three of the felons had documented ties to local anti-gay bigots, bigots whom Murray had defeated in his political career;

-- Two of those three felons had their legal representation provided by Jack Connelly of Tacoma, an attorney who had opposed gay marriage;

-- Two sought, and received, six-figure payouts for telling their stories;

-- The only document was a thirty-plus-year-old opinion from an Oregon CPS worker, which showed that Murray was telling the truth, and his accuser had lied to The Stranger (!);

-- Heckard's lawsuit was filed during election season, but dropped literally on the eve of his having to testify under oath -- an event which could have made his Connelly-supplied lawyers liable for a Rule 11 violation.

I doubt very much any conclusion our Council would have reached from this evidence would have supported The Stranger's belief in Murray's guilt.


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